The present invention relates generally to interconnections made between a printed circuit board and one or more electrical cables carrying signals to and from the circuit board.
The interconnection of printed circuit boards to other circuit boards, cables, or other electronic devices is well known in the art. Such interconnections typically have not been difficult to form, especially when the circuit switching speeds (also referred to as signal transition times) have been slow when compared to the length of time required for a signal to propagate through a conductor in the interconnect or on the printed circuit board. However, as circuit switching speeds continue to increase with modern integrated circuits and related computer technology, the design and fabrication of satisfactory interconnects has grown more difficult.
Specifically, there is a continued and growing need to design and fabricate printed circuit boards and their accompanying interconnects with closely controlled electrical characteristics to achieve satisfactory control over the integrity of the signal as it travels through the interconnect to and from the printed circuit board. The extent to which electrical characteristics (such as impedance) of the interconnect must be controlled depends heavily upon the switching speed of the circuit. That is, the faster the circuit switching speed, the greater the importance of providing an accurately controlled impedance within the interconnect.